These are the things I’ve been drawn to:

What colors have been calling your name lately?

I’m linking this post to Melissa’s Inspired Room.  Check out what others are inspired by and add your own!
Have a great day!

Hopeful Homemaker

I just wanted to share a bit of beauty with you.

There are those days when leaving the flowers at the store is just too much to ask of a girl.

Wishing you a beautiful day!

Jennifer

Adorable!  It’s personalized, and best of all, I don’t have to sit there while they write their names over and over and over again!

This project was so simple.  I took a picture of my daughters holding one fist out, making sure that the focus was on their faces and not on their hands.  Then I simply added text and had the pictures printed.

After printing the photos, simply punch a hole at the top and bottom of the outstretched fist and insert a dum-dum into the holes.  Done!

So I ask all of you moms out there with children in elementary school:  Is this not the cutest, easiest, fastest valentine ever?  My poor kids… they may never get to take a different one to school from now on!  Hurry, make some!  You’ve got plenty of time.

Hopeful Homemaker

After calling my husband to complain, I grabbed the spare keys and headed out for the kindergarten carpool.  As I turned the corner, I happened to notice the frost on some weeds by the side of the road.  I turned around, went home, grabbed my camera, and went back to park by the side of the road.  I gave myself 5 minutes to capture some of the wonder which the fog had made possible.

I’m SOOO glad I did.  Just a few minutes taking pictures as the sun finally managed to penetrate the fog changed my whole day.  I hope that the beauty of God’s creations can help make yours a little better, too!

Thistles.  Simple, but now beautiful as well.

An oak leaf on the ground.

I think the picture below might be my favorite.  When I look at this, I can’t help but think that all the beauty we work so hard to create doesn’t hold a candle to the brilliance of frost on this bush.  It was like thousands of sparkling stars.

More weeds.

Ivy climbing up a fence.

Lesson learned.  Next time you need to shake the foggy winter blues, get out IN it!  Grab your camera and a jacket, and give yourself a few minutes to wander around your neighborhood in search of beauty.  You probably won’t need to go farther than your own yard.  Not only will you come home with some gorgeous photos, you will feel better about the fact that it’s winter.  (And if you’re me, you might even think something like “wow, I might be figuring out how to use this camera, after all!”)

Have a wonderful winter’s day!

Hopeful Homemaker

My heart lingered here, reluctant to carry it to the basement.  I realized that this was probably my last Christmas to lay my own baby in the manger for our annual re-enactment of the nativity.  The realization made my heart ache.

In an effort to appreciate the wonder of this stage in life while it is still mine, I dressed my infant in white and carefully laid her in our own little manger for some photos.

Gratefully, I was able to capture it in a way I feel pleased with.  I love the way the light was shining on her face.  It reminds me how much light is in her, how much light she has brought into my heart and into our family.

The words of a favorite song kept running through my mind, “dressed in white, filled with light, what wonder did I see?”

The next lyrics say, “What I feel, what I know, leads my heart to sing, ‘I will praise thy name, praise thy name from day to day.”  As my own heart was weeping a little at the idea of moving past this moment, it hit me how very blessed I am, to have experienced this wonder EIGHT times!  I realized that instead of weeping, I should joyfully praise my Heavenly Father for sharing this with me.

In the above picture, she is playing with her oldest brother.  How marvelous it is to watch your older children bask in the wonder of a baby.  In the photo below, I love the bokeh of the white lights on the tree behind her.

Again, I LOVE the light.  The white is so white, her smile so pure, her eyes so clear.

Years ago I read a line in one of Sara Teasdale’s poems, which says “children’s faces looking up, holding wonder like a cup.”  For many years now I have wanted to capture the feeling of that line in a photograph of one of my children.  In this setting, I feel like I did, as my baby gazed up in wonder at all the world around her.

And because I’ve never been in love with a baby’s feet like I have with these little ones, I took a few of her toes for good measure.

Sigh.  How glad I am that I listened to my mother’s heart that morning, and captured a moment I don’t ever want to forget.   It made me think a little of Mary, the mother of Jesus.  I wonder how she felt when they left the stable, if her feelings were bittersweet.  I’ve never thought of it before.  We spend a month at Christmas celebrating the manger, yet it was a dirty place where animals lived.  Surely she was a little bit relieved to put it behind her, and somewhat overwhelmed by the many physical needs that both she and the baby had.  Yet if she realized that prophecy had been fulfilled in that dirty place, then part of her must have paused to mark the moment, to hold it in her heart for future reference.  I wonder how many mothers throughout history have stood on the threshold of time, anxious to move on but reluctant to leave.  I wonder what Mary thought as they left the stable.  I wonder if any of her feelings paralleled my own.

A stable moment.  My grateful heart sings.

Just yesterday we were playing outside in the fall sunshine.
Last week I was taking pictures of the glorious fall leaves.
Today I was in the same spot, but the picture looks a lot different:

A good reminder that life’s simple gifts need to be appreciated while we have them.
You never know how long it will last.

And the carpet of leaves!  What a sight!

Ah, yes, the shoes!

My heart sighs.  What a season!

Then the children came home from school, the wind picked up and the clouds moved in, and the fun began!

Rides in wheelbarrows…

Leaf angels…

really deep leaf angels…

Leaping into piles…

and hurling them to the wind.

As a mother, I ask this question:
How can I bear to call them in to do their homework?

Look at the wattle on these turkeys!
Sometimes God’s love of color really catches my attention.
The blue head and red wattle are quite the combination, wouldn’t you say?

Something about the brightness of the color combination was really beautiful to me.
I’ve always loved red, white and blue.  They’ve been my favorite colors for years,
but in the past year or two I’ve come to really like the tomato red with a lighter, brighter blue or even aqua color.

It’s not a color combination that a lot of people around me use much.  But I love it.
And here I was, staring at it on a turkey, of all things!

For the past year or so, I’ve engaged in a casual observational study that I call  Observations in God’s Use of Color.  I love to pause and look around and learn a little about how colors coexist in the natural world.
I’ve learned that nature isn’t very matchy matchy.  Sometimes it’s very understated.  Sometimes it’s anything but.  And sometimes the most average seeming things are punctuated with amazing flourishes.

I guess that’s what grabbed me about these turkeys.
We don’t think of them as beautiful creatures.  But what a colorful flourish!

I really love color.  Since I’m on the subject of turkeys, I guess it’s ok to say that every Thanksgiving when I ponder the things I’m grateful for, color is always on my list.  I’m just so grateful that we have such a simple thing as color to enrich life so much.  Being grateful for color reminds me to give thanks that I can see, as well.  Simple gifts.  It’s a wonderful life, isn’t it?!

If you’ve had an experience when a glimpse of unexpected color stopped you in your tracks or made you catch your breath for the sheer beauty of it, please share.  If you haven’t, start watching for one.

You’ll be surprised.

Happy observing!

HH

On a recent preschool field trip, the peacocks reminded us how beautiful they really are.

When I was a girl, my uncle had peacocks at his house, and I remember hunting for the feathers.  I had forgotten how enormous these birds look when their feathers are fully extended, and how blue they look.  It took my breath away to watch it (while I also wondered why I decided not to take my zoom lens).

It was also interesting to watch the strength it took from these birds to keep the feathers in a fan when a breeze was blowing:

The poor guy had to work hard to keep them out of his face.

But here’s my question for you.  Have you ever seen an albino peacock?  If not, check this out.

Sorry about the view of the cage.  Only one little spot was bent and would fit my lens in it, and this beauty was nowhere near that spot.  I know that I’m a sucker for the color white, but this bird was stunning.

I was fascinated.  All those feathers, and totally white.

Amazing.

I was really touched by the beauty and majesty of these birds.  I remembered a favorite quote:

“Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting, a wayside sacrament.”   -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Glad I got to see the handwriting this morning; what a lovely signature.

Hopeful Homemaker

We have two cherry trees in our backyard.  One has been covered with blossoms and the other seemed barren.  (My son has been cheerfully tapping the snow off them after every storm in an attempt to be sure we can save all the branches.) We take for granted the apparent health of one and worry about the other.  Imagine my delight when I found the first sign of new growth on the seemingly struggling cherry tree.

When the first hints of green were followed by lovely white blossoms, I had to capture the magic of it all.

My tree reminded me of one of life’s lessons:  everyone blooms in their own way and at their own time.  We have two trees, growing side by side in the same yard, and yet they each blossom on their own schedule.  People are like that.  Children are like that.

I guess the magic comes when we learn to notice and appreciate the signs of growth in ourselves and others.  And be prepared to celebrate the blossoms whenever they come, having hope and faith that they will appear.

Where I live, it will go from cold to hot in a couple of weeks, with only a fleeting taste of perfect spring temperatures.  I guess I’ve got to just enjoy it while we’ve got it.

And remember.

Hopeful Homemaker